Faced with a bleak future of depopulation and possible oblivion, Japan's rural communities are looking to gray power for a new lease on life.
Helping them is a private nonprofit organization that has launched a nationwide movement to help retired city dwellers live in the country.
The Tokyo-based NPO, set up by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) in April, acts as an intermediary between rural villages hoping for an inflow of urbanites and city slickers seeking to retire in the country.